Blue Skies, Blue Water
by Tokyo Huntress
Summary: When the students of Crown Key Academy go to Destiny Islands, four students discover a secret - girls from the water. An unexpected event, of course, but an amazing one. But not everyone on the Island can be trusted, especially when students begin going missing. Can the four boys find them while keeping their new companions safe? Or will they all just disappear there like the rest?
1. Chapter 1

The school bus was filled with the sounds of students talking. There were currently twenty students and thanks to a lack of staff there were only five teachers on the bus with a couple more on the way as the days went by. Anyway, the students of Crown Key Academy were heading to the Destiny Islands for an entire month for their trip thanks to the distance between Crown Key and Destiny Islands. Most of the teachers dismissed the chatter as nonsense however, though it meant more to the students which was to be expected.

Turning to the person she was sitting next to (that being Neku Sakuraba) Shiki grinned slightly and asked him, "Hey Neku! Do you believe in that myth about Destiny Islands?"

Sighing a bit, Neku sighed and shook his head.

"Come on! You know what it is. The one about the mermaids."

"No. I don't,"

"Aw, come on! Why not?"

Neku knew that Shiki wasn't going to give up until he gave her an answer. He'd gone to school with Shiki since the sixth grade, so it was a given that he knew her well enough to know that. In fact, Neku knew her as well as Shiki knew him. Though sometimes the girl...well, wasn't the easiest to be around.

"Simple; because there's no evidence of it."

"Aw, you're no fun. Mr. Mew agrees," Shiki folded her arms and looked back to the front. She peeked over the seat and saw Riku and Sora talking to each other, in curiosity, decided to listen in.

"So what do you think we're gonna see here, Riku?" Sora asked, sounding excited about this trip.

"Sora; you do remember that we went here every summer until we turned ten?" Riku questioned, turning to his friend. "And we did anything to try to find something back then so something tells me we're not going to find anything special."

Pouting a bit, Sora argued back a bit. "But Riku! There was-"

Riku smiled in a slightly sly manner before interrupting him. "That one time when you thought you saw a mermaid girl."

"But I did...!" Sora whispered, pouting again.

"Oh come on. Besides; maybe by some miracle you'll be right."

Shiki's hat soon fell onto Riku's head, covering his teal eyes. "What the...?!" Riku muttered, his hands reaching for it, before tilting his head back far enough to see the pink-haired girl without her hat. Riku sighed a bit and handed it back to her.

"See Neku!" Shiki poked Neku, who was lying back. The boy with the headphones sat up and turned to them. "Looks like I'm not alone," she winked a bit at Sora.

Riku felt a sense of deja vu, only this was happening to Sora and not him. "Here we go again..."

"Has Shiki done this before-"

"Yes."

Shiki hugged Mr. Mew to her chest, before turning and seeing Ventus, the boy in the third seat, the seat by the window. The blonde was staring out the window, briefly talking to Terra and Zack.

"Ventus is lucky enough to be friends with a prefect," Shiki commented, Terra being the prefect in question. "Any thoughts Neku?"

"None from the looks of it." Joshua chuckled a bit.

"Because I don't." Neku stated, seeming to turn something on. Now no matter what was said to him, it seemed like he didn't even hear.

Sora briefly peeked over the seat and noticed the word 'Hikaru'. "Must be some music artist...!" he smiled a bit, tilting his head. Neku had his hand up in a way that he wouldn't let anyone touch his headphones, the ones that he never seemed to take off.

Seeing how the conversation featuring Shiki, Neku, Sora and Riku had basically ended, the brown-haired boy decided to see if he could start a conversation with Ventus. "Hey, Ventus...!" he said, smiling a bit.

The blonde seemed a bit lost in thought, before turning to the brown-haired boy. "Oh, hey Sora...!" he said eventually, putting his hands behind his head in his usual manner.

"Are you okay...?" Sora had detected that Ventus seemed...anxious about something. "You look pretty anxious,"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." Ventus replied, he had a secret - it was about his brother. He for one felt...out of it. He had felt like that for about two years. There was only one person who knew that, and that was Terra.

The group felt like they were being watched, making their gazes turned to the front of the bus. They could have sworn that Mr. Nasexm had been watching them a second ago, making them feel slightly uneasy.

In fact; if the students were to be honest, due to a disappearance there, everyone had felt a bit off once the trip to Destiny Islands had been mentioned. Although students like Seifer, Rai and Beat tried to act like it didn't bother them, it was still slightly nerve-racking. Truly there only seemed to be one student who didn't seem to care - that being Fuu. The steel-blue haired girl just sat, her red eyes staring straight ahead.

Sora took a deep breath, grinning a bit. "This is gonna be great, I know it." he muttered to himself, sitting up.

Thanks to the distance and Destiny Islands being, well, islands, the students had to take a boat.

Quite a few of the older students chose to stay inside but a small amount of students such as Ventus, Roxas, Sora and even Terra came outside.

As Sora stared down at the deep blue water, he could see movement underneath the waves, confusing him slightly. That was when a cerise pink tail appeared out of the water, splashing him in the face. On the other side, a white tail and a baby blue tail spattered the liquid on Ventus and Terra, while a black tail did the same to Roxas.

"Hey, Terra! Did you see that?" Ventus pointed at the sea, but he was getting far too enthusiastic from the sight making his body tilt over the bar, hanging above the water.

"Ven!" Terra shouted, bending over the railing and just barely grabbing Ventus by the feet. "Come on...come on..." he mumbled, trying to pull him back to the boat. Two teachers, Miss Lockhart and Miss Farron assisted the brunette in pulling. Sora and Roxas ran to help once they saw what was going on.

While hanging over the railing, he saw someone staring at him in the water. It was a girl with bright blue eyes, rosy cheeks, pale lips and shoulder-length blonde hair which draped over her shoulder, only for her to swim back down - and there was that white tail again.

As all students were brought inside, Ventus was left wondering. "Was...was that a mermaid? Like the legends say?"

Turning to his best friend, Terra asked, "Are you feeling okay, Ven?"

Ventus nodded a bit, smiling a bit. "Yeah...and thanks, you guys.." he said in reply.

"Hey, we couldn't let you fall in." Terra said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Wakka got to his feet and went over to Sora and Riku. "Looks like we're almost there, man..." he said to them. "Hey man, me and Selphie and Tidus, we're gonna be recordin' over the month; show what it's like livin' on an island for a month, ya?"

"Sounds like a good idea!" Sora smiled a bit. "I heard Shiki, Neku, Hayner, Pence and Olette are going to be interviewing people around the island to see while investigating some legends around here."

"Me, Selphie and Tidus might join 'em." Wakka replied, looking out the windows. "It could help us out, ya?"

Nodding in agreement, the people sitting down jerked slightly before stopping. The teachers stood up.

Clearly they had arrived. "Students, please go in an orderly line in your groups for your assignments or into your school clubs. As you already know, siblings please stay in the same group."

Eventually they found themselves unpacking in the medium-sized dormitories. As Sora took his clothes out of the suitcase, he noticed someone staring out at him in the water. She had ocean blue eyes, shoulder-length auburn hair and fair skin. He had to admit she was quite pretty, but he didn't know what was attracting him to her. About a second later, she was gone, back in the water.


	2. Chapter 2

It took Group 1 the longest to unpack their bags, mainly because most of the boys were left wondering about what they just saw. Each one of the males had a question of their own.

Sora's was, "Who was that?"

Roxas and Terra's were, "What sort of fish were those?"

And Ventus had the most absurd one, mixed with the legends that surrounded Destiny Islands, "Could that have been a mermaid?"

No answers were known to them, but that wouldn't last forever.

When they finally lined up, one of the teachers Mr. Emans was the one who told them off for the amount of time taken. "You, Terra, as a prefect should have made your classmates' unpacking go at a quicker pace. Shouldn't you?"

"Yes, sir.." Terra nodded a bit, keeping his head down.

It was Riku who noticed a small smirk on the teacher's face, for a millisecond maybe but it was definitely seen by two students. One from Group 4 who never seemed to be noticed by anyone.

"But as you know, for your month here you are to do an assignment in your groups. Group 2 and Group 4 have already decided what they are going to do. Group 2, what is your objective?" Ms. Lockhart asked.

Shiki stepped forward - she was the most active when it came to the school paper so she could be considered...the leader, to coin a better term. "We are going to be investigating Destiny Islands' myths and legends and that will be the topic for this month's recap paper!" she answered, smiling in an enthusiastic manner.

Nodding slightly, Ms. Lockhart smiled a bit. "Very good...and what about you, Group 4?"

It was Tidus who stepped a foot forward. "Me, Wakka, Selphie, Seifer, Fuu and Rai are gonna interview some people on the island and record what it's like living on an island like this!" he mentioned, proudly.

The members of Group 1 went silent. They for one didn't have much of an idea about what their assignment was going to have, but luckily it didn't matter today.

"For those who do not have an idea for their assignments, please use the time you have exploring the islands to your advantage and see if you can think of an idea for what your project will involve. Now, as high school students at Crown Key we expect you will be able to behave appropriately when given the opportunity to explore the islands, especially since you shall all be representing the academy. Do I make myself clear...?" Ms. Farron questioned, looking at each one of the groups who simply nodded in reply.

"Good, now you have permission to go. And one more thing; please be safe - if anything you see can be considered suspicious, then please tell me, Ms. Farron, Mr. Highwind, Mr. Emans or Mr. Nasexm about it immediately." Ms. Lockhart finished off, smiling a bit.

With a gesture, the students began filing out of their...cabin, you could say, out to the outside.

A bright smile appeared on Sora's face once he took it all in. "See, Riku! It's just as good as I remember it." he told his best friend as he felt the light breeze fly gently through the air.

Riku looked around, eventually replying to Sora with, "Yeah, you're right." he nodded a bit to add slight emphasis.

"We should probably try to get an idea for this assignment today or we are not going to get by easily..." Roxas pointed out, looking out at the ocean.

Laughing nervously, Sora rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "Yeah...we probably should. Hey! Me and Riku have been here a lot - we can show you some of the places here and maybe we can get an idea!"

"Sounds like a good idea; where do we start?" Ventus replied, smiling brightly. He was seeming pretty enthusiastic about this, like it was something new, even an adventure.

So that was what they did. Group 1 explored all around the main island, but soon enough Sora found himself looking out at a different island. He'd need to ask about that sometime.

Sora suddenly thought of an idea. "Hey, guys! How about we make it about structures, you know, like geography."

"Bravo, Sora. But sadly, Group 3 already have that idea in their brains, in fact; they're already working on it right now." Joshua said to them, dismissing their idea the moment they created it.

"Aw, great." Ventus sighed a bit, looking down.

"Still; we'll think of something, Ven." Terra reassured, looking at the boy, who smiled again and began looking around. That was when he saw something up ahead. It seemed to be a large rock with a strange design on it. Like a keyhole or something.

Things suddenly changed internally. His eyes were fixed on it, and he began walking towards it. Whether he intended to or not. Whether he wanted to or not. His hand reached out, a key like sword appearing in his hand. It had a black handle which was offset from the rest as opposed to being aligned with it with a guard just as misaligned as the handle. A dull gold in colour, it joined with the shaft which was gray, thin, and had a very slight curve outward with it being decorated with three thin dull gold lines that adorned it with the teeth being gray in colour like the blade and having a wing-like shape and a green gem for a keychain.

A bright light flew from it, almost making the blonde stumble a bit. By this time, Terra, Sora and Roxas turned around and ran over to him, only for the rock to fall flat and in the process, slowly roll out of the way.

"What did you do, Ventus...?" Roxas questioned, he was going to go in. The devil may care, but he wouldn't.

Snapping out of his funk, Ventus looked at the three and then gave his answer. "Oh...yeah. And I don't really know, this just showed up in my hand."

"Ven, you need to get rid of that." Terra's eyes went wide, not only carrying through on his duties as a prefect but another reason being he was worried about what this weapon could do. Not just to the students he was meant to discipline, but also to Ventus himself.

As Terra and Ventus spoke, Sora turned around and saw Roxas going in. To make sure his friend was safe, he followed after him. The inside of this cave was very pretty looking, with light blue crystals hanging from the roof that almost seemed to illuminate the hidden cavern. It was rather large and spacious, with rocks surrounding a deep pool of water that seemed to lead out to the sea, but it was hard to tell due to a large wall of stone that seemed to go into a bottomless pit. With a light breeze now entering the room from the rock being removed, being in there was quite...well, comforting, soothing. There was the sounds of rocks, gently being pushed into the watery abyss by their footsteps; followed by a light splashing...and talking?

Sora tilted his head. In the water was a girl...wait a moment! It was that same girl he had seen in the water while he was unpacking!

Alongside her was another girl who looked rather similar to the other girl. She had a similar structure to her and the same colour of eyes (that being blue), but she had hair as black as ink that went to about her neck in length. She had a bra made out of shells...and a black tail, the other girl having a pink one.

"Are those...?" Roxas mumbled, tilting his head. His blue eyes went wide from the shock.

"MERMAIDS...!?" Sora cried out, only for the two girls to turn around.

Roxas rolled his eyes at the brunette. "Well done," he muttered, sarcastically.

"Hey!" the girl said, looking over at them, her tail splashing in the water. "How did you get in here?"

The black-haired girl looked over at them. While the red-haired girl seemed confused but defensive, the girl with the dark hair just seemed shy towards them.

And Roxas would admit that she was quite cute looking, though he never was that type of boy, he truly couldn't help but think that about her.

Sora laughed nervously in response to the pink-tailed girl's question. "Yeah...that rock in front of it moved and we wanted to see what was in here." Sora then stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "We didn't mean to interrupt anything you might have been doing,"

Although the girl sighed, she did giggle a little bit soon afterwards. "It's fine, and to answer your question; congratulations, you guessed correctly." she said, showing her tail a bit and swimming around in the water playfully. "Oh! By the way, I'm Kairi."

"Um...Kairi?" the black haired mermaid said to her. "I don't think Naminé and Aqua will appreciate this,"

"Well...I suppose." Kairi muttered, starting to wish she hadn't said her name.

"Because we don't," a female voice came from behind.

As this happened, Ventus and Terra came into the cavern.

Not only were there four boys, but now there were two more mermaids in the water. The first one Ventus recognized just about straight away. The second caught Terra's eyes. She had sky blue eyes and short blue hair that went into bangs that went to the right side of her face as well as a blue tail and shell bra. She summoned a key-shaped sword, similar to the one that Ventus had earlier and pointed it in Sora, Roxas, Ventus and Terra's direction, a piercing glare on her face.

"What are you...humans...doing here?!" she questioned; she was clearly suspicious - and to be fair, she did have a right to be.

"Aqua; the rock fell-"

"But you can only get that to happen with a keyblade..." Aqua responded, now seeming a bit confused.

That was when she noticed that same 'keyblade' from before in Ventus' hand. "But...but how...?" Aqua questioned out loud. She was clearly puzzled, but the boys could see the suspicion in her eyes.

The four mermaids looked at each other. "I thought humans couldn't wield keyblades..." muttered the blonde girl.

"I know, Naminé...but somehow-"

The three boys received another surprise. They were now holding keyblades as well.

"This isn't right." Aqua gestured for the other mermaids to come with her, and they then swam through the watery abyss until they were out of sight.

Sora blinked in surprise. "Did that just happen...?"


	3. Chapter 3

"You're kidding me, Sora." Riku said, shaking his head.

"But it's true!" Sora replied, pouting a bit. There was no way he had just 'seen' that. Those four girls were real, heck! He even had Ventus, Roxas and Terra as witnesses.

Riku chuckled slightly. "Yeah. Sure." he said, folding his arms. "Now come on guys, we need to figure something out for this project. Besides, we've only got a little while more before we have to go back to the cabin."

Sighing a bit, the four walked alongside the one member who didn't come into the crystal cave with him, trying to think of something. They passed the groups who were already working on their assignments - it was almost embarrassing, especially since they had Terra with them.

Suddenly, the students looked up abruptly as screaming could be heard nearby. Sora's eyes went wide as he could see four hooded figures in the distance attacking girls that they knew.

"Who are they, Beat!?" Rhyme asked her older brother, trying to be heard over the screams of the students.

"I don' know, sis. But men don't run, men fight! You go-"

Ms. Farron had a word about this, taking most of the students inside with assistance from Mr. Highwind and Ms. Lockhart, but there was something that Sora noticed. Mr. Emans and Mr. Nasexm was not there.

Sora ran towards where the screams were coming from and with the flick of his wrist, the keyblade from before appeared in his hand as he ran. Roxas and Ventus followed, and once Ventus went, Terra went after them.

As they did, their keyblades appeared one by one - but Roxas was left even more confused when two keyblades appeared in his hands!

"How do you have two...?!" Ventus questioned, tilting his head as he ran towards the screaming.

"Never mind that...!" Roxas replied, bluntly.

There were four people in black coats, one of them were grabbing at Naminé and the black-haired girl, trying to pull them out of the water. Meanwhile, another was already pulling Kairi out of the sea and trying to knock her out by bashing her head on the rocks. Lastly; the remaining two were fighting against the blue-haired mermaid. This mermaid seemed to be putting up a fight, and a large one at that. Kairi slapped the person with her tail, making him give up on trying to knock her out and began to drag her.

"Hey! Stop right there!" Sora shouted, running and getting a hit on the guy, making him let go of her.

Terra felt anger sink in as he saw the person slapping the blue-haired mermaid across the cheek, before trying to bash her head against a rock. He walked towards the hooded figure and hit the person over the head with it, who simply teleported away, but he did not have a grip on the mermaid anymore. She summoned her keyblade and slashed at the figures grabbing her friends.

Ventus slashed at the figure multiple times. "Get off of her!" he shouted. Naminé cried out in pain as she felt this complete and total stranger clutching onto her, it felt like he was digging into her skin.

Roxas slashed at the same man alongside Ventus. Through the fabric, an 'x' was put into his side due to him having two keyblades. The raven-haired girl pulled as hard as she could, before being able to get some breath back as she swam under the water.

Once the hooded figures lost grip of the mermaids, they teleported away. The one who had grabbed Naminé and the girl with the black hair smirked at the four boys and said to them, "Don't believe this is over." they said. "We will have the pure heart,"

They exited through a portal that seemed to just have darkness in it, no light whatsoever. Sora turned to Kairi. "Hey, are you okay...?"

Nodding her head, Kairi looked up at him. "Yeah, just a bit dizzy." she answered, smiling a bit. "Oh! And thanks for saving us from them."

"It was no problem, Kairi."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Kairi said, pointing at Sora with a small grin on her face. "You never told any of us your names, so tell you what. If you tell us your names, we'll tell you ours!"

Kairi was aware that the boys did not know all of their names, only hers.

Smiling brightly, Sora put his hands behind his head, Ventus did the same.

"I'm Sora!"

"I'm Ventus!"

The two boys nearly did it in perfect unison. Now it was time for Roxas and Terra to speak.

"I'm Roxas.."

"My name's Terra."

Finding it fair, Kairi turned to the other mermaid girls. "Well? Tell them, you three."

Aqua folded her arms, but smiled faintly. "I'm Aqua," she said, finally looking at them properly. She wasn't glaring but wasn't properly smiling like Kairi was.

Looking over at Ventus, Naminé spoke up. "My name's Naminé," she said, softly.

There was a bit of silence after she spoke her name, as the raven-haired girl didn't say anything. She kept her head down and rubbed her arm, before eventually looking at Roxas and taking a deep breath. "I'm...my name's Xion." she said.

Aqua swam closer to Terra. "Terra? Thank you." she said, clearly grateful. "All of you."

Sora and Ventus beamed. Aqua found Ventus adorable, in a little brother way.

Before the conversation could be taken further, the four boys heard their names being called. They turned around, only for Kairi, Naminé, Aqua and Xion to return to their underwater world.

Soon afterwards, the four boys ran back to the cabin. Mr. Emans looked over at them. "Where were you." he said, as it did not sound anything like a question.

Sora, Roxas and Ventus were lost for words. Uh oh. How were they supposed to reply to this? That's what they were wondering. It was only Terra who knew what to say. "Some of the residents were being attacked, so they tried to help them." he said, making up a believable lie.

Ms. Lockhart turned to the boys. "That was very noble of you...but it was dangerous. Don't do this again, we wouldn't want to lose you."

They nodded, feeling a sense of relief that they would not receive too large of a punishment.

Nobody was allowed out for a bit, except to get things for their assignments.

"Hey guys?" Sora said as Group 1 went to sit at one of the tables in the common room. "I've got an idea! How about we study species here, you know, like what's in the water, birds, animals."

"Sounds smart." Roxas commented, before glancing over at the other groups. "And since the first idea was already taken, we've got no competition. Yeah, we should go with that."

"Sora, Riku; you know about some of the animals here, right?" Ventus questioned, tilting his head a little.

"Yep!" Sora replied, smiling. "So it's settled, right?"

"Right." the other members of Group 1 said in perfect unison.

The group soon began noting down what types of animals were on the islands. "Crustaceans, you should note that down. And before you ask, they're animals like crabs and krill." Riku said, glancing at Sora with a small, wry smile.

"Hey! What are you looking at me for?" the brunette questioned his friend, pouting a little.

"It's nothing." Riku replied, calmly. His smile faded when he saw Mr. Emans glancing at him, there was that smirk again! It was only for a split second but he could have sworn he'd seen it.

Since they weren't able to go outside, the group weren't able to do much besides noting, but it was something, right?

Soon enough, the hours of darkness arrived on Destiny Islands and Roxas couldn't sleep thanks to a certain spiky-haired brunette's snoring who's name started with an S.

Tired of staying indoors, Roxas sneaked outside to the beach, grabbing something from the kitchen's fridge. He was wearing his usual nightwear, a simple white shirt with gray sleeves, dark gray shorts and he went outside barefoot.

Taking in the air, Roxas heard a gentle splashing that broke the silence as he felt the sand curl around in his feet in a strangely calming way. That was when he saw her. That girl again.

Xion.

She seemed to be relaxing there, keeping her tail submerged in the water, her eyes fixated on the sky above her. "They say, that above here are tons of worlds, glowing down on us all like a thousand candles."

It was strange. It almost seemed like she knew he was there. In her hand, was a seashell known as the Thalassa. A seemingly common shell for her to see, yes, but she couldn't help it. Xion loved seashells.

That was when she turned her gaze towards the left, jumping a bit at the sight of Roxas. She looked away, closing her eyes. "Oh...you're...what are you doing out here?" she asked him.

"I couldn't sleep." Roxas stated, still standing up as he met her gaze. "Because...well, someone won't stop snoring."

Xion giggled slightly. "I have the opposite...I just have...well, oh never mind." she said. In truth; she had...well, strange dreams. Nobody knew that except Xion herself.

"Hey...I did sneak something from the kitchen you know." Roxas admitted, grinning slightly. He then revealed it - sea salt ice cream.

"What is that...?" Xion asked. "I've seen people eat that before on the docks, but I've never had it myself."

"It's sea salt ice cream, Xion." Roxas said, smiling a bit. She seemed, well, innocent. He actually found it quite...cute. "Well, here." Roxas handed it to the mermaid with the black tail.

She looked up at him, making Roxas do a head gesture, as if to say, 'Go on'.

Xion then tried it, she was silent for a few seconds as she tasted it. "It's brilliant...it's salty...but sweet at the same time...!" she pointed out. She smiled a bit.

"So...um...are you okay...? That guy didn't hurt you too much back there, did he...?" Roxas asked, looking at her.

Xion shook her head. "No, don't worry." she said to him. "By the way...thanks, for helping me back there. You didn't have to do that."

"It...it was nothing." Roxas replied, quietly. He took a bit of his own sea salt ice cream, Xion doing the same when she finished speaking.

She looked over at him. "So...is this your first time over here, Roxas?" she asked him, slightly curiously.

"Well...yeah, it is. I'm here with Crown Key Academy." Roxas answered, looking back at the cabin in the distance.

"What's it like there?" Xion inquired. "At Crown Key."

Roxas was silent for a few seconds. "Nothing really...interesting. I just usually hang around with Lea and have this after school,"

Xion was also quiet before she gave a reply. "It's better for you," she muttered, shaking a bit at a memory that she had.

 _"One day, my child...you'll realize that you can catch the stars..." sang a soft, soothing voice to a young black-haired baby._

 _Suddenly, there was the sound of shouting. Screaming. The mother's eyes went wide, she swam to a secret place, carrying her three babies in her arms. She closed it, before swimming out to find her husband. Even then - she could hear her mother screaming for help._

"You don't need to worry...about people, humans coming after you - coming for your own family. Your own species." Xion whispered, it was clear she didn't intend for Roxas to hear, but he did. Xion sighed a bit, but smiled slightly. "Thanks for the company, Roxas..." she said, this time it was easier to hear her.

"Don't mention it." Roxas said, smiling a little bit at her.

The black-haired girl then returned to the water, finishing the ice cream and taking the stick back with her under the water. Roxas watched where she had once been. He didn't know what it was about her, but something about her was...

Special.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I apologize again for not updating in such a long time! Anyway, here is Chapter 4, finally out.

"Huh...?" Ventus muttered as his eyes opened, hearing a bit of movement. He turned on his side and saw Roxas sleeping on the bunk bed across from him and below him...but he wasn't wearing his nightclothes. "Roxas...?"

The boy turned onto his side to look at Ventus, groaning tiredly. "What..."

"Did you change outfits or something...?" Ventus asked, tilting his head.

"W-what..oh...yeah. I did. I had to...clear my head." Roxas answered, Ventus could tell from his tone that he didn't want to continue talking about it. And did it really matter? Ventus highly doubted it. He shrugged a bit and lied down on his bed again, only for Roxas to groan in annoyance.

"What?" Ventus asked.

"Sora..." Roxas sighed. "Stop it...!"

The brunette sat up abruptly. "W-w-what?!"

Roxas sighed again and shook his head. "You're doing it again."

There couldn't have been anyone else, as Terra had to wake up earlier due to being, well, a prefect.

Sora grinned a bit, hands behind his head as he looked down at Roxas in the bunk bed below. "By the way, did you know I managed to convince the teachers to let students go to the play islands?" he said, proudly.

"Really?" Ventus asked, looking over at him.

"Yep! Well...I think Ms. Lockhart already had the idea in her system, don't know who told her though..." Sora shrugged a bit.

Ventus smiled a bit to himself, something told him Terra might have had something to do with that.

"But anyway, don't we need to get up or else Mr. Emans will get on our cases?" Roxas questioned, looking over.

Sora realized that...then noticed that he and Ventus were not clothed yet. "Yeah, about that..."

Roxas sighed and properly got changed before exiting the dormitory. Looking at each other, Sora and Ventus stayed still for a moment before getting to their feet and getting changed...just in time too as the register was being taken. It just got to Ventus' name as he got in line...right at the end.

"H-here!" Ventus replied, putting his hand up a bit.

"That was close..." Sora thought to himself.

Ms. Lockhart came to the students, smiling a bit. "Now, thanks to Sora as well as one of our prefects..." she began, students glancing over at Sora and Terra, making them feel glad that they had suggested this. "We have been given information about a few islands not too far away from here. And we have seen it suitable enough to be a place where you can learn as well as discover more about Destiny Islands, however! Seeing how this is a separate area from the main islands and dormitories, there will be rules enforced there as well. Understood?"

The students nodded, before beginning to chatter. Shiki turned to Group 1. "Nice idea, you two...!" she said, clearly talking to Sora and Terra. "How did you find out about that anyway?"

"I've...I've been here before." Terra explained. He wasn't lying. He'd been here, many years ago.

"Well, now it won't get old...!" Shiki winked, before giggling and going with her group.

Granted, the rowing wasn't appreciated as much, but the island itself definitely left curiousity within the students.

Ventus saw something up ahead, something like a...pencil. Looking around a bit as the students wandered, wanting to get a better look around, Ventus turned the corner where no one had looked yet and...well, saw a familiar face!

"Naminé?" the boy wondered out loud, making the mermaid turn around.

"You dropped this." Ventus held the pencil out for her to take back.

"Oh...thank you."

"Say...where did you get that? Do they have them under the sea or something...?"

Naminé smiled a bit. "No. I found it on the docks one day. Someone didn't want the pad or the pencil so they just dropped it there, most likely so it could rot but...I got it first."

"How long have you been drawing for, anyway?"

"Hm...actually, I've been doing it for so long that I almost don't remember...!"

"Oh...okay then."

Naminé giggled a bit. "I'm kidding remember, I said almost."

"Oh!"

"It's okay. And I've been doing it for about...six years."

"Wow..! No wonder your drawings are so good!" Ventus said to her, smiling.

The blonde haired mermaid blushed a light shade of pink. "Oh...thanks! But they aren't that great..." Naminé replied, looking away from him.

Ventus was surprised by this comment, making his eyes widen briefly. "Yes they are!" he tried to convince her, but she simply shook her head.

"Thank you, but you don't need to say that." Naminé responded, calmly.

"But!-"

"I know what you were going to say...and it's really nice of you, Ventus."

"It's no problem!"

Naminé smiled softly, finding that happy-looking grin quite innocent.

"Still, why are you here with me...? Shouldn't you be with Sora and the others...?"

"Oh yeah!" Ventus jumped slightly, realizing he had somewhere to be.

"Ven!"

He knew that voice. Terra. "I need to go soon, Naminé..."

She nodded. "By the way...this might help." she handed him a page of her notebook, showing multiple animals from the oceans.

Smiling brightly, Ventus looked at Naminé. "Thanks Naminé!" he hugged her, surprising the mermaid girl as her tail splashed around in the water.

"I'm happy to help you, Ventus..." Naminé replied, blushing a light shade of cerise.

"Call me Ven." Ventus said, he could hear Terra still calling for him. Since he didn't want to worry his friend, Ventus waved to Naminé as he ran off to go find Terra again.

Once Ventus returned, Terra turned around and went towards him.

"Sorry Terra..." Ventus apologized, knowing that Terra was like a brother. If not a bit overprotective, sure, but Ventus knew he meant well. And cared for him. In fact, Ventus did want to become a prefect. "Still, I got this and-"

"Where did you get that...?"

"Naminé gave it to me...!" Ventus smiled a bit.

"Huh...so that's where you've been." Terra said, arms folded with a somewhat wry smile. He ruffled Ventus' hair, before stopping. "But come on, we've got to get going."

Ventus looked back, before the two joined their group once again.

"What took you so long, Ventus?" Roxas asked...though really he didn't have much of a place to ask due to the fact he'd been doing something very similar the night before.

Ventus answered, "I met...you know,"

"Oh...!~" Sora commented, nodding his head before smiling brightly. "I don't know where you got that, but is that for-"

"Yep!"

"Well, that helps." Roxas mentioned, calmly.

"Now, let's make some progress!" Sora perked up, enthusiastically.


End file.
